Some people immediately see the advantages of human-focused design in the creation of products, particularly web or mobile apps. But we know gamification as defined by human-focused design (thanks for this distinction, Yu-kai!) is applicable to so many other areas, like:

marketing gamification

lifestyle gamification

workplace gamification

We’re also seeing gamification taught in universities and online programs. With so many courses and books to choose from, it’s hard to choose what will be right for you.

Right for you might mean most applicable to achieving your goals of improving your lifestyle, whether your health or relationship with your kids. If this was your aim setting out, you might have fallen into the trap of a self-help book about fitness or parenting, so good for you for checking out gamification instead!
It’s so important to know yourself and know what you’re looking for.

In this post, I’ll start with my learning journey, then discuss a few options to starting or continuing your gamification journey. Who knows, it might last a lifetime!

To demonstrate you don’t need a strict plan to learn gamification, let me describe my journey (reminder, this is my story, not Yu-kai’s!)

To save your eyes, here it is in bullet form:

as a youth played Starcraft and SimEarth and Super Smash Bros

as an adolescent played and designed tabletop games, like Diplomacy (I loved diplomacy so much I started a club in high school)

read several game design books from Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman and Jesse Schell and McGonigal

designed a new card game, called Advantage, and published an iPhone app

designed simulation scenarios for an online game to train Target Canada’s new employees

continued using workplace gamification at Target (networking)

found Jun Loayza who recommended me to Yu-kai (I read Yu-kai’s Actionable Gamification and Nir Eyal’s Hooked in one week, synthesized, and told the story of Yu-kai’s rise through eBay selling ranks in a 15-page report, all in one week)

immersed myself more into Yu-kai’s work throughout the back half of 2016

every week I try new apps to learn how they are being used

every day I think about lifestyle gamification (chore designs w/ my girlfriend)

every month, I reflect upon and optimize my productivity (my writing routines)

through gamification, I’ve improved my relationships (with my Story Stadium community and with my family/friends in general)

because I’m so immersed in human-focused design, the lens I see the world through often starts with Octalysis and related frameworks–I’m excited to see where my learning journey takes me next!

Your journey and getting started

Why’d you decide to learn more about gamification?

If you found this post, you know there are plenty of resources available online and plenty of people trying to sell you the merits.

Defining your aim

Maybe you have a clear idea already, and can choose one of the following broad categories:

Defining your initial investment

It can be daunting to jump into a semester-long course. For others, this is exciting and the only way to ensure long-term commitment. Have a quick think about this, then browse the following offerings accordingly.

Coursera: Gamification (University of Pennsylvania)

This online university course is divided as follows: Gamification and games, deconstructing games, motivation and psychology, design, applications, and gamification in perspective.

As defined by this course, “Gamification is the application of game elements and digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. This course will teach you the mechanisms of gamification, why it has such tremendous potential, and how to use it effectively.”

Use for: broad introduction to gamification

Master in Gamification and Transmedia Storytelling (IEBS)

This 750-hour course combines online material and webinars. The Master in Gamification and transmedia storytelling is presented as a complete training program that unites two complex and absolutely contemporary areas: Gamification and transmediality.

As described by the course: “In these virtual collaborative environments are the games that comes with various disciplines around the 4 axis design memorable experience: good stories based on decisions made by users are counted; powerful visual aesthetic chords are designed to “target group”; game elements are assembled and final implementation platform is decided.”

Udemy

Whereas a university accredited gamification course requires a larger effort and commitment, Udemy is a way to get a taste of gamification basics and language before investing in something a bit more intensive.

There were other gamification courses, but each of the below is rated above 4 stars.

Leadership via Design

“We are a unique boutique instructional design, education, and leadership studio. We work with you to build and deliver the best, accredited learning and leadership programs and courses for the greatest value according to YOUR needs. We offer various types of leadership and learning resources to serve small businesses, independent learning institutions, and organizational teams.”

Use for: workplace and leadership gamification

Thanks to…Nora Brennan from the Octalysis Explorers for sharing this and recommending Sharon Link-Wyer, Ph.D.

Gaute Kokkvoll, also from the community, is currently setting up a course in Gamification for Westerdals ACT, a University College in Oslo that will be applicable for Bachelor and Master students (starting January 17). The curriculum literature is Actionable Gamification!

Actually getting started

Where have you learned about gamification? Share your story in the comments! Oh, and if I left out a great place to learn, please share that too 🙂

Get mentored by Yu-kai Chou

Every week I hop on a conference call to teach, answer questions, and give feedback to members of Octalysis Prime. If you want to take your Gamification practice to the next level, then come join us.

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3 thoughts on “Where to Start Your Gamification Journey”

Fantastic resource list many thanks for the investment you have made here. As I’m working through the concepts I’m seeing some great connections to areas like Design Intent, Instructional Design, Behaviroism and a host of others. This is going to be fun.

Soooo many cool things out there to learn about gamification! Formal and structured, informal and user led experiences, books, blogs. I have been a lot less structured at the beginning and started reading articles and watching videos from knowledgable people. Probably one of the first I encountered was Yu-kai at TEDxLausanne, followed by Gabe Zichermann’s, and started to follow them on Social Media where I started encountering many others. An excellent experience for me was to go to the Gamification World Congress, and beyond the actual talks I was able to network a lot, and these relations have driven me to further opportunities and learning. A key milestone was Octalysis Prime, where I’ve been invested into consuming content. The journey continues!